Left commits two more "grievous mistakes" : Sinha

Published: Tuesday, July 29, 2008, 15:00 [IST]

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Ranchi, Jul 27 (UNI) Veteran Marxist Jyoti Basu had termed as a ''historical blunder'' the Left's denial of Prime Minister's post to him, but they committed two more 'grievous' mistakes in the past few months, senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said today.

Elucidating, the former Union Finance Minister said as the Manmohan Singh government was preparing to go ahead with the Indo-US nuclear deal, the BJP had stressed on a special parliamentary committee to make a report on it, which the Left parties ''rejected''.

Secondly, the Left withdrew support to the UPA government when the prime minister was out of the country, which was ''unprecedented'', he said after launching a weeklong awareness campaign about the recent political development in the national capital.

Mr Sinha said the Left's ''double standard'' led to such a development and clarified that the ''tainted win'' in the floor test by Dr Singh should not be construed as acceptance of the deal by the country wholeheartedly.

''If we come back to power, the deal will be re-negotitaed,'' he reiterated.

On Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee's role, he said it was also debatable. ''The development exposed that the CPI(M) had no control on Mr Chatterjee,'' he remarked.

He condemned the Speaker's statement that he did not wish to vote against the government with the BJP in the July 22 confidence motion.

Mr Sinha wondered how the government, with a Prime Minister who claims to be honest and a renowned economist, failed to control inflation.

''Where was his honesty when the UPA indulged in horse trading to win the floor test,'' he asked.

Mr Sinha claimed that the UPA approached 50 NDA MPs, but three of them showed courage to 'unmask the sinister' design in the House.

To a question, he ruled out any chance of being the chief ministerial candidate in Jharkhand.